energy is great we have a lot of good things and there are things that can help us. it's hard to predict. we can product if that doesn't happen, growth of entitlements just gets worse and worse and something has to give. >> so here you are, you know, perched as professor in beautiful cambridge, massachusetts -- >> it's dark at the moment. >> because of the power outages. nonetheless you're watching this dance, we were just talking to congressman hoyer and he himself said let's get real. there are very real consequences here. we looked at the gdp position yesterday, third quarter was better than anticipated, housing has been up as christine's reported. so those are all great signs thus far but if this thing doesn't work out, it's frightening. >> that's exactly right. i mean it's already hurting the fourth quarter number, and it's going to look worse. businesses don't know what's going to happen. if you were thinking of doing an investment, why would you do it now until you see what's going to happen? there seems like so much positioning here that it's awfully tempting